Since updating to WatchOS 10.0.1, the watch battery charges only to 80% overnight and the battery drains more quickly than before the update. I also updated my iPhone 14 pro to iOS 17 around the same time. Would this impact the watch battery?
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As many here I was affected by the constant battery drain of approx. 5% per hour and I think I found what was causing this for me.
When I checked the Watch App on my phone ==> General ==> About it showed that it synced 15 photos even though I have not selected any photos or albums to sync.
Opening the photos app on the watch confirmed that and showed that there are no photos on the watch.
I then selected an album with one picture to sync and the photo count went up to 16. Next I created a photo watch face and set it to dynamic and suddenly the watch showed random pictures that I never selected to sync. I searched for these photos on my iPhone and deleted them from there until the watch only showed 1 picture being synced, which was the one from the album. I then changed the watch face back from dynamic to album and left the face on the watch.
I did this on Tuesday. Yesterday, on Wednesday my watch was at 37% after wearing it without additional charging for almost 17 hours. Usually it would have been dead after 14 hours max. Today I took the watch off the charger at 7:30, at 8:41 it jumped to 99% where it would have been at 94% or even less before and now at 12:30 it is still at 87% which is 2.6%/hour.
I think the constant photo sync would be a good explanation for this issue as the watch would constantly download new pictured from the phone and would index them. In addition to that it would also explain why not everyone is affected by this since this would not apply to people having their photo sync configured to sync specific albums rather than the watch syncing random photos when nothing is selected for the photo sync. And it would also explain why resetting the watch doesn't help to fix this issue since the watch would start randomly syncing photos again after the reset.
Might be worth to check/try for others.
Same! My watch also goes black and no matter what I press it doesn’t come back on. My battery life use to last me all day and now it’s only lasting about 6 hours. They’ve been burning the battery on my iPhone 13 Pro with all the updates as well.
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Same here. Series 5 used to last all day and still at 20% before bedtime. After iOS 10 update it’s at 88% from 100% after 30 minutes. And is dead after 6 hours. Need a new update to solve this. Shocking battery life now 😢
I have an Apple Watch Ultra and I do use the watch to go to sleep and now whenever I do it drains about 40% of battery while sleeping. it used to be only 1 - 4% at most. its crazy and I have no idea what's going on.
UPDATE: I unpaired and repaired my Watch from my phone. BAD NEWS! My fully charged battery was completely drained within two hours. 😡
I may just go b ack to a previous WatchOS until this ****-show is resolved. Disappointed.
@dadilus, there’s an update since 10.0.1? Where did you find that? Mine says that it’s “up to date with all the latest bug fixes and security enhancements” at 10.0.1 and doesn’t provide any option(s) to install anything newer.
@Engiland that’s exactly what I did. And more than once, on different days. I’m an IT person (but not Apple) and the industry folk wisdom is always “Turn it off, wait at least 30 seconds, then turn it back on.” Made no difference, so maybe you were just lucky.
My case is more extreme. I go from 100% to 10% in 3 hours. Today, it’s worse. Took off charger at 100% at 6 AM and it’s now 8:20. I’m not even wearing it, and just got the notification that it’s at 25%. Apple better fix this soon or they’re going to lose me as a customer, and I’ve been with them for years.
This is my exact scenario! Watch (series 5) stayed charged all day long & I only ever had to charge it at bedtime. Now since the update I have to charge it 3 times a day. I put it on at 7:30am and it’s completely dead by noon. Now my battery health is suddenly 79% and saying it needs support. This was not the case the day before the update. I’m so frustrated.
Apple Watch 7 series and iPhone 14 Pro Max both suffering ridiculous drain rate since the last few updates.
I used to get about 15-16 hours’ use before I charged the watch and there would be more than 20% remaining, but today I had it on for less than 6 hours, and I’ve just had to put it on the charger because it was in the red.
This needs to be fixed.
After watch is 10.1 RC update, my batch battery became crazy. Loosing power at high speed, over heating while charging and even losing battery while charging ! It became unusable. I restarted it, restored it, nothing changed… hope apple will release a RC2 soon !
I had the very same issue with the crown. At first I thought, it got broken somehow. Then I got used to not use the Crown. And finally it worked again - after 2 weeks and several hard resets, re-pairings of watch and phone, app disablings and so on…
I have the same problem with the watch running down to about 35% since the update. I haven’t changed my daily routine. Before the update I would run the battery down to a consistent 45 to 50 percent. I used to start my day with 93%. Now it starts at 90%. I always charge it up and wear it while sleeping.
Yup! My phone and watch 7 both drain incredibly fast. It’s happened on several OS releases. To be honest for as expensive as these devices are anymore you would think that issues like this within the OS would be non existent. To be truthfully honest this is the last straw for me as I’ll be switching to a Google Pixel 8 Pro and Pixel Watch 2 within the next month. The lack of innovation with Apple anymore is so disappointing and issues that come along with a simple software release like this are unacceptable.
Charged my watch before sleeping. It said it was fully charged. Slept with it on. Woke up and went to work and it’s now at 20%. Put it on low battery mode. 5 minutes later it’s at 10%. Everything on it was so slow the day prior. It was glitching my phone (15) as well. Watch is pretty useless now unless there’s an update to fix it. Found before my iPhone 15’s battery drained more quickly and I read it’s because I needed to update my watch. Now it seems the battery issues have moved over to the watch :/
I’m on Watch OS 10.1 and mine last 3-5 hours with cellular set to off and the listening app set to off. Watch is basically unusable for daily use. I have a case open with Apple but no resolution yet.
Apple Watch Battery Drain Issues after Update
